From January 7 to 11, our current Director of International Programs at CFI, Bill Cooke, visited Kenya to have a look at the expansive programs CFI-Kenya
has been undertaking.

Bill began his three day visit interacting with the humanist orphans. The humanist orphans are a project of CFI-Kenya located in the rural region of Kisumu
with the aim of helping children in rural Africa who have been victims of witchcraft accusation and any other misfortunes caused by irrational thought. At
the orphans’ primary school, Ogwodo Primary, Bill was welcomed by the school administration and had a chance to walk to the various classrooms and greet
the pupils. Then, he met the eleven humanist orphans and their relatives. Here he also explained to the teachers about our mission at the Center for
Inquiry. Afterwards, he joined the humanist orphans and took a good part of the afternoon playing exciting games with them. He concluded the day by sharing
a meal with the orphans and their relatives. The orphans were excited to have Bill visit and they enjoyed his engagement with them in the games and they
asked him to come again.

The remaining two days were scheduled for intellectual engagement and Bill was excited to work with the On Campus students; this is what he does best.
Here, he started with Maseno Freethinkers. The Maseno Freethinkers are an On Campus group at Maseno University in the western part of Kenya. The group has
been frequently supported by CFI-Kenya. Bill seemed to have known his audience well and he took them through the history of humanism and expounded more on
the dangers of superstition. The students were thrilled by his wide knowledge on the topics of humanism, freethought, skepticism, reason, and science.

Afterwards, Bill engaged leaders from various community organizations in Nairobi. CFI-Kenya has always held various workshops with community organizations
to sensitize them on critical thinking, freethought, humanism, and skepticism. Hence, we saw the need to let them listen to a talented speaker like Bill
Cooke. Here, Bill presented on the need to end irrational thoughts and superstition. The audience responded with enthusiasm and rejoined with interest.

Finally, the University of Nairobi Humanists and Freethinkers, an On Campus group at the University of Nairobi waited for their visitor eagerly and finally
Bill arrived and he did not wait. Here, he again engaged the students about humanism. The intellectual capacity was good and most who had hoped to grasp
more about the ideals of humanism found a great speaker and someone who could engage them one-on-one.

Bill Cooke’s visit was very inspiring and he instilled confidence in us. Most students at the On Campus group believed that if CFI-Kenya were capable of
frequently inviting international speakers who were much more versed with topics of humanism, freethought, science, and many more, then they would be more
prepared to defend their stance intellectually.

In that regard, we thank the Center for Inquiry-International for sending Bill Cooke to pay visit to our activities here in Kenya. CFI-Kenya has extensive
programs starting with the Humanist Orphans Project and the On Campus programs that sponsor freethought groups at various universities, engaging the local
organizations on topics of humanism and having speakers come to see and engage in some of our programs. Bill Cooke’s visit was a great example of the
success of these programs.

]]>CFI Kenya Report: The Results of Superstition in Africa and Our Humanist EffortsMon, 14 Jan 2013 10:56:00 EDTinfo@csicop.org ()http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/cfi_kenya_report_the_results_of_superstition_in_africa
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/cfi_kenya_report_the_results_of_superstition_in_africa
As the year 2012 came to an end, the skeptic world was watching keenly the irrational population to see how they would react when the much awaited end of
the world, as was supposedly predicted by Mayas for December 21, 2012, failed. In this apocalypse, the sun was believed to be aligned with the center of
the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years. The believers of this apocalypse thought that gravitational, magnetic, and solar energies would go
awry when this galactic and planetary alignment occurred, causing an array of natural disasters,
including the weakening of our magnetic field, allowing solar radiation to penetrate our atmosphere. However, as that date reached and
passed without any such happening, it appeared that this was not another lesson to the many bigots who have been wasting their precious time predicting
illusions, and this also did not enlighten the irrational population of how they were wasting a lot of energy spending sleepless nights waiting for the end
of the world so they could go to heaven.

Whereas in many enlightened republics these kinds of fake predictions only lead to panic of the irrational people, the situation might not be the same in
other republics; and mostly those in which the population is highly superstitious like in Africa. We still cannot forget the incident of 2006 when the
believers of House of Yahweh predicted the end of the world. To start with, on September 12, 2006, the founder of the House of Yahweh, Pastor Yisrayl
Hawkins, announced the end of the world through nuclear wars. Sadly, the Kenyan branch of this religious cult strongly believed in this and started selling
their properties. They also went ahead and built mud banks where they stocked dry food and water to survive when the end of the world began. Some went to
the extent of withdrawing their children from school. When this prophecy failed, many people who were previously wealthy become poor, and their children
who would have had good educations faced a bleak future because some religious leaders had duped their parents. Is this really humane?

Of course, this has been the sole reason why humanists in Africa have put anti-superstition campaigns as one of their top priorities. Not only has
superstition caused people to lose property and given the youths a bleak future, but it has also made people lose their lives. Right now, the main
challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa is HIV/AIDS. The statistics show that about 22.5 million people live with the disease; of these, 2.3 million are children.
However, the current trend is that most religious people have taken advantage of this scourge in many parts of Africa and are organizing healing campaigns
to heal diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Sadly, after such healings, most HIV/AIDS victims leave contented that they have been healed of HIV/AIDS and the result
is that they throw the antiretroviral drugs in the pit latrines. Later, when they realize that they were duped, it is too late. This has resulted in the
deaths of many people who would have otherwise been helped to live longer lives.

In the rural areas of Africa, the loss of lives of these people to HIV/AIDS—who would have otherwise led longer lives to bring up a potential
generation—have resulted in many orphans being left behind without a future. Many schools in the rural areas have experienced declines in pupils because
these children have no one to continue educating them.

This is why, with support from CFI–Transnational in our Anti-Superstition Campaign, we launched Support a Humanist Orphan. The aim of Support a Humanist Orphan is to help children in the rural areas of Africa who have been victims of misfortunes caused by irrational
thought. So far we have eleven orphans, and we have taken care of their education and other supplementary needs.

In the year 2012, we interacted a lot with the humanist orphans. We started on a high note by giving them the best we could to make them get educated. As
such we went ahead and took their measurements for uniform sizes. Here, we measured the sizes of the eleven orphans and bought them uniforms.

Measuring uniform sizes for the humanist orphans

George Ongere and the humanist orphans in their new uniforms

The male pupils in their new uniforms

The female pupils in their new uniforms

Apart from the uniforms, we went ahead and interacted with the orphans and the distant relatives who host them to find out how they were organized in terms
of food and shelter, and we saw the need to supplement when we had the resources. For example, we organized and distributed some food items to them and the
relatives who had taken the task of taking care of them.

As humanists in Africa, we cannot sit back and relax and watch the gagging of the future generation simply because people have refused to think critically.
The old society tried to chain us in superstition, but this is the time to break the chains. When we sponsor these children, we stand the chance of
becoming louder voices in the rural schools and instilling critical thinking from a lower level of academia. This is where the seed grows stronger roots.

Humanist orphans and some representatives of the distant relatives

George Ongere distributes food items to the humanist orphans

Not only did we take our Anti-Superstition Campaign to the rural areas, but we went further to engage the university students. The greatest development of
2012 was that we managed to establish contact with Maseno University. Maseno University is a public university in the western part of Kenya. Here, we
managed to establish a group, the Maseno Freethinkers. We also had workshops at the University of Nairobi and Moi University. So far we have established on
campus groups in four public universities.

George Ongere speaks to Maseno Freethinkers

Some members of Maseno Freethinkers

Our plan is that once we have captured the six major public universities in Kenya, we shall launch a national campaign against the dogmas that have held
the society back. We shall hold public functions and debates where we shall have attendance from the entire student body all over Kenya and campaign
against superstition. We will campaign against the witchcraft hunting that has left many old people dead through lynching. We will show the public that
some superstitions held are a danger to the albinos: over fifty albinos are dead because fishermen believe their hair accrues large harvests of fish. We
shall advocate for the rights of the children to influence other African nations like Nigeria where the future of the children is bleak because the
population believes some children are witches and cast spells on the society. We believe this will also go a long way in inspiring nations that still think
that children born with HIV/AIDS contain demons and are therefore hacked to death.

Just as Leo Igwe, the former director of CFI/Nigeria would say, “At the end of the day, reason shall prevail.” We believe with our efforts, reason shall
prevail.

]]>CFI Kenya Report: An Approach Towards a Humanistic AfricaFri, 17 Aug 2012 14:17:00 EDTinfo@csicop.org ()http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/cfi_kenya_report_an_approach_towards_a_humanistic_africa
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/cfi_kenya_report_an_approach_towards_a_humanistic_africa
When students in most learning institutions in East Africa become engaged for the first time in the topic of evolution, they become astonished at the mention that some of the fossils discussed were found in East Africa. Some have always shuddered at the thought that good-looking human beings like us descended from apes, but even then the reality that the skulls and tools that gave evidence to this were found in their countries have always left them in wonder.

Of course, in East Africa, the works of the Leakey family, and mostly Richard Leakey, have been of great importance and influence in the international arena. Richard’s expedition on Lake Turkana in Kenya led him to the discovery of a skeleton of a homo erectus who died 1.6 million years ago at about the age of nine to twelve. This was a nearly complete skeleton of a hominid that died in the early Pleistocene and it was the most complete early human skeleton ever found. This specimen is displayed at the Nairobi National Museum as catalog number KNM – WT 15000. Also, the fossils discovered in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania give further evidence that human beings evolved.

Moreover, the Nairobi National Museum has the greatest collection of early human fossils anywhere in the world. The display includes primitive artifacts revealed by the Leakey family and fossils from Lake Turkana. In 2005, the museum closed for the public and reopened in June 2008 after extensive modernization and expansion which resulted in a magnificent piece of architecture including the sculptures of different stages of evolution of man at the gate, pictured below.

Artwork at the gate of Nairobi Museum

Obviously, the above discoveries and works should have convinced the East African population that all that we see in this natural environment came through a gradual process that took a long period of time and should consequently dampen the belief in fairy tales of a supernatural being who took soil and modeled a human in his image and all the other fables contained in various religious books.

However, due to the continued poverty, corruption, and other disasters of the third world, most East Africans and a good number Africans in general have avoided thinking and believing that they came through the gradual process called evolution. Most have held the conviction that they were created by a supernatural being who would one day appear and deliver them from the poverty and problems of the third world to the paradise of an afterlife. No wonder why Africa is still reported as a religious continent.

Therefore, it is not surprising to note that important dates like February 12 of every year pass unnoticed in Africa. That was the day Charles Darwin revealed the great truth in his publication of “The Origin of Species.” Nevertheless, the Center for Inquiry sponsored this year’s Charles Darwin Celebration at Moi University.

George Ongere at a past Charles Darwin Celebration

Moi University is located about a kilometer from Eldoret Town in the Western part of Kenya. Here, CFI-Kenya engaged Moi Freethinkers; a free thought organization that was founded by CFI-Kenya in 2008. At the event, most students responded with enthusiasm and most presentations were on the topic of evolution with additional topics like natural selection. The intellectual content was good. However, CFI-Kenya noted that most students had little knowledge on the topic of evolution and the topics of humanism and here we promised to hold various events to build their capacity on the subjects.

George Ongere presenting at Moi University

Moi Freethinkers; an Oncampus at Moi University

On another note, starting September last year, CFI-Kenya started a project “Support a Humanist Orphan.” This initiative started when we engaged the rural village of Kisumu in our anti-superstition campaign. In Kisumu, many kinds of irrational belief have taken root. Here, cases of witchcraft accusation and witch-hunting have been common. Another example of irrational thought in the village is how the community is dealing with HIV/AIDS; CFI-Kenya reported on this on CSICOP. Many victims of HIV/AIDS were made to believe that they had been healed after attending various religious crusades and were told to stop taking anti-retroviral drugs. Most people from Kisumu travelled to Loliondo in Tanzania and were given some herbs by a retired Lutheran priest and were assured that the supernatural powers of the drugs had cured them. The result was that many victims lost their lives, consequently leaving behind many orphans. Once these children are left behind, they face a bleak future and many drop out of school.

George Ongere talks to the school administration about the humanist orphans

In most parts of Africa, the fates of such children are left to the unknown and most succumb to death due to hunger and malnutrition. And in countries like Nigeria, children accused of witchcraft are hacked to death and some are fed poison. Some also migrate to small urban centers where some end as street children or, in the case of the females, start prostitution. This then leads to a rise in unsafe sex, and thus more HIV/AIDS.

The above predicaments caused by superstition involving the young generation is what tempered CFI-Kenya to start the “Support A Humanist Orphan.” Here, we identified eleven orphans, of whom five are boys and six are girls, who had been left to the unknown, and took them back to school. The stories of these young children are touching and one is left to wonder why Africa has to embrace such irrational beliefs that thwart human rights and gag the younger generation, and why that continues to persist even in this era of enlightenment.

The aim of “Support A Humanist Orphan” is to help children in the rural of Africa who have been victims of witchcraft accusation and any other misfortune caused by irrational thought. When they grow in our care, they will be exposed to critical thinking skills and this will prevent them from being indoctrinated by religion and the superstitious society around them.

The eleven humanist orphans

Already, by adopting the initiative, CFI-Kenya has been granted permission by the various rural schools to launch any program we believe would help open the minds of the pupils and students. By now, CFI-Kenya has started forming debating clubs in the rural schools where they will engage in debates that open the minds to critical thought. Hopefully, through this we will be able to introduce an alternative to religious studies that they are now forced to swallow.

It is our belief that so far this is the best approach towards a humanistic Africa.

In my recent report, I wrote that we celebrate Charles Darwin day on 12th because it was the date he published the book "On The Origin of Species". That was an error. We have always held Charles Darwin Day on this date to Celebrate his birthday and his contribution to science.

Am sorry if it might have caused some inconvenience.

Regards
George

]]>CFI–Kenya Report: Spreading our mission of “science, reason, and free inquiry” beyond bordersWed, 01 Feb 2012 10:57:00 EDTinfo@csicop.org ()http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/cfikenya_report_spreading_our_mission_of_science_reason_and_free_inquiry_be
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/cfikenya_report_spreading_our_mission_of_science_reason_and_free_inquiry_beDespite the advancement of science and technology in this century, many African republics have incessantly clung to belief systems that are a thwart to human progress in this age of enlightenment. To begin with, it is fateful that the values of science education have not been considered a necessity by various governments in many sub-Saharan republics of Africa. The resulting effect of this negligence is that poor public understanding of science is so massive—allowing wide room for the spread of superstitious ideas into the minds of society.

Regrettably, in most of the African republics in the Sahara region—where the majority of citizens live below the poverty line, with an ever-widening gap between the rich and poor, and with governments that are not concerned with the welfare of the people because of corruptions, impunities, and dictatorships—superstitious ideas often turn into something so lethal that if the population is not sensitized against such beliefs there are bound to be increasing human rights violations in the coming years and beyond.

First, HIV/AIDS is one of the nightmares in the region. It is estimated that 22.5 million people live with the disease; of these, 2.3 million are children. During 2009, an estimated 1.3 million people died from AIDS. This situation led to many children orphaned at a young age. As a result teenagers are left with the task of looking after families; most girls resort to prostitution and a majority of young men engage in crimes just to fend for the family.

Unluckily, despite the effort of science to let HIV-positive individuals lead normal lives by providing anti-retroviral drugs, which delays the virus from turning into AIDS, religious bigots and traditional witch doctors have been using this epidemic to exploit superstitious beliefs, thwarting this positive effort to help the human race.

Recently, the situation of Loliondo stunned many people. Loliondo is a village situated in the Nyorongoro district of Arusha in northern Tanzania. In Kenya, everywhere you went, you could not fail to see posters and signs of this place advertised. This village became famous when word spread throughout sub-Saharan African countries that retired Lutheran pastor Ambelike Mwasapile had found a miracle cure that many believed could cure incurable diseases like HIV/AIDS, cancer, ulcers, and many more. Ambelike, who is widely known as Babu wa Loliondo, used a tree from the Apocynacea family called Carissa edulis to make his famous herb, which was administered in a cup.

Suddenly, it became a shock when patients were taken out of bed in hospitals and rushed to Loliondo. Drinking the herb invoked the superstitious nature of many HIV/AIDS victims and they believed they had been healed; hence almost all abandoned taking anti-retroviral drugs. However, this fakery did not last when victims who had abandoned taking the anti-retroviral drugs started dying and a large number deteriorated in health.

Despite such kinds of failure, many religious institutions in Africa have copied this fakery and continued to organize miracle healing of HIV/AIDS. Sadly, after such healing crusades most individuals are told to throw away anti-retroviral drugs. As much as there is a struggle to help and sustain people living with the virus, irrationality advanced by religious dogmas and traditional societies has continued to usher people into deathbeds even when they could live longer lives.

Many people who have been liberated from irrational beliefs in Africa have wondered whether our great grandparents believed knowledge was expensive and decided to plant these irrational, superstitious ideas into the minds of younger generations, causing unwanted human crises up to this century. The situation in Africa, caused by irrational beliefs, is so disturbing that if it is not tackled by rationalists, freethinkers, skeptics, and others who have been liberated from the dogmas that thwart knowledge, many human crises will be massive in the upcoming years.

We organized debates about the issue on the campuses where we have established movements. The University of Nairobi Academic and Freethinking club organized a debate sponsored by CFI–Kenya on 22 October, 2011, with the title, “Does religion kill HIV/AIDS Victims in the name of God?” This debate had a controversial title and the attendance was overwhelming. Nevertheless, the message was clear and many, even the religious who attended, saw the need to change perceptions. This approach was the best towards extending our mission. The Moi Freethinkers at Moi University also organized two workshops and closed with their annual meeting.

In the month of November, the humanist movements in East Africa realized that if they don’t double their efforts and give much of their time to the empowerment of the various populations, then irrationality would soon threaten to consume the human population because of widespread superstition.

As a result, from the 25th to 28th of November 2011, East African humanist leaders gathered in Kampala, Uganda, to discuss the way forward and how humanist organizations could work together to spread the ideals of reason and science to combat widespread irrationality. Here, leaders from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania drafted a two-year work plan (2012–2013) that would make sure their objectives are met within this framework. This included organizing joint meetings, mobilization, workshops, and conferences within the countries of East Africa.

East African Humanists’ Meeting, Kampala, Uganda: 25 November 2011

This plan also included going into schools and institutions of higher learning where we could launch debating clubs and sponsor publications. In Kenya, the Center for Inquiry–Kenya was given the task of coordinating these activities; hence I was appointed the country coordinator for these events. Jackson Ezekiel, who is the chairperson of Tanzania Humanist Movement, was chosen to coordinate Tanzania, and in Uganda, Betty Nassaka, who is the head of International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organization, will act as the chair of this process. Also in the meeting, a resource mobilization plan was drafted outlining how the involved groups would solicit for resources to make sure that this mission is effective within the two-year plan.

To add, I also managed to meet students from Dar-es-salam University in Tanzania and Makerere University in Uganda who were interested in our On Campus program. Already they are in the process of starting On Campus movements and I have been invited to give a talk to a mass of students in February 2012 at Dar-es-Salam University.

I believe that with this initiative taken by the humanist body in East Africa, a lot of impact is going to be felt and we shall be steps ahead in the fight against irrationality in the two-year plan. Again, this is going to give CFI–Kenya an advantage in spreading the ideals of the Center for Inquiry beyond borders. We hope for the best in the year 2012 and beyond.

From second-to-left: George Ongere; Robert Bwambale, director of Kasese Humanist Movement and Kasese Humanist School; Jackson Ezekiel, chairman of the Tanzanian Humanist Movement; and Esther Nakate of the Ugandan Humanist Effort to Save Women.

George Ongere with Betty Nassaka, Secretary General of International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organization (IHEYO), in Kampala, Uganda, 27 November 2011.

Deo Sessitoleko, East African Representative of International Humanist and Ethical Union, presenting at the East Africa Humanist meeting.

Bob Churchill of the British Humanist Association presenting a point.

George Ongere leading the meeting in drafting an activity plan.

]]>Charles Darwin Celebrations At Nairobi National MuseumMon, 18 Apr 2011 09:32:00 EDTinfo@csicop.org ()http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/charles_darwin_celebrations_at_nairobi_national_museum
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/charles_darwin_celebrations_at_nairobi_national_museumThe participants, who were mostly
students from different on-campus groups, were very keen to follow the
arguments that were made by the different speakers.

On February
12th 2010, the Center for Inquiry–Kenya organized Charles
Darwin Celebrations at the Nairobi National Museum. The Nairobi National
Museum hosts the remains of Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus
that were discovered by Richard and Louise Leakey in 1972 and 1975 respectively.
The need to see such evidence of the evolution of man has indeed made
the place an attraction to most notable scholars around the world.

Undeniably, CFI–Kenya chose to hold the celebrations at such a location in view
of the fact that it could refresh the memories of the participants about
the evolution of man, and see some evidence that supports it. At the
event’s first session, the invited speakers presented papers on the
topic of evolution. This was followed by a storming session in which
the audience interacted with speakers and asked questions surrounding
the cases against and for evolution. The participants, who were mostly
students from different on-campus groups, were very keen to follow the
arguments that were made by the different speakers.

Nairobi National
Museum

The most thrilling
engagement was a debate on creationism. Most speakers held the point
that creationism has put forth claims that can
not be tested and are therefore beyond the realm of science, and that
all the peripheral claims that have been
put forth by most creationists have been proven false by testing—hence
they are simply mere beliefs. Nevertheless, most speakers noted that
despite the fact that the creationists’ beliefs have been proven wrong,
most religious fundamentalists in Sub-Saharan Africa have refused to
accept the evidence and have continued to lobby for the forceful teaching
of creationism in schools.

Participants of the University of Nairobi at the venue place

In addition,
the disappointment put forth was that public understanding of science
is still very poor in sub-Saharan Africa. Of course, in many republics
of Africa, science has continued to be thwarted by practices which are
influenced by local customs and values. These behaviors and practices
are deeply rooted in traditional beliefs and superstition not easily
displaced by science or by modern approaches based on new knowledge.

At the end
of the celebrations, it was observed that most African countries have
not sufficiently addressed the acquisition of scientific knowledge.
This is the major reason that witchcraft accusations are
widespread on the continent. Many people are
at a risk of being lynched simply because of a population that lacks
rational approaches to various phenomena. In some parts of rural Africa,
HIV/AIDS is still being linked to witchcraft. A child born with the
symptoms is seen as a curse to the parents and is either abandoned,
fed poison or hacked to death. Epilepsy, too, is a disease that the
same societies believe to be a result of witchcraft.
People do not appreciate having children with certain disabilities,
simply because of scientific ignorance;
most live in fear most of the time in such a society.

This indicated
that African countries should redouble their efforts with a strategy
that begins with popularization of science. This requires
a kind of empowerment that must be pumped into the brains of the coming
generation, mostly those who are currently studying
at the higher learning institutions. For this commitment, CFI–Kenya
assured the audience that it would continue to organize events that
promoted good science, reason and freedom of inquiry.

The event proved
useful and CFI–Kenya will continue to organize the event every year,
for this is one of the best ways to promote public understanding of
science.

A section of participants engage in a hot debate

Outside
the venue place

]]>Will Africa Still Be Immersed in Deep Superstition by the Year 2030?Fri, 22 Oct 2010 16:55:00 EDTinfo@csicop.org ()http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/will_africa_still_be_immersed_in_deep_superstition_by_the_year_2030
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/will_africa_still_be_immersed_in_deep_superstition_by_the_year_2030It
is a fact that superstitious beliefs have still remained a disease in
most parts of Africa even up to this century of enlightenment.

In 2006, the Kenyan government
ushered a new national development blue print in hopes of transforming
Kenya into an industrializing middle-income country providing a high-quality
life to its citizens by the year 2030. Titled
Vision 2030, this plan seeks to create a just, cohesive, and equitable
social development in a clean and secure environment under an issue-based,
people-centered, result-oriented, accountable democratic system. And
to make sure that the government remains true to that vision, Kenyans
voted in a referendum held on August 4, 2010, on a new constitution.

Not
surprisingly, other African sub-Saharan nations have also taken a keen
interest in Kenya’s strategic plan for the year 2030 and have also
placed the year 2030 as the deadline for their ambition to become middle-income
country.

The
above strategy has raised hope among many Kenyans, and most have the
self-assurance that come the year 2030, the poor man in the slums will
experience a lot of changes. Many youths who have been caught out in
the unemployment situation also believe that by following this vision,
they will be absorbed by the many industries that will spring up when
the vision is realized.

Nevertheless,
there has been great debate among skeptics in Africa as to whether upgrading
developing nations in sub-Saharan Africa will actually end crime related
to poverty that has been on the rise lately, the most notorious of which
have been related to irrational belief in witchcraft and superstition
that causes many to seek shortcuts in getting wealth. Indeed, the recent
activities in major parts of Africa have proved that if the majority
of African societies do not become empowered to change their mindset
about these beliefs, then many are going to engage in inhumane activities
that are bound to cause a human rights crisis in most states of Africa.
By 2030, the situation might be worse or even beyond control.

With
the modern capitalist societies adopted by most African nations, competition
has been fierce in most developing nations in Africa. The majority of
the people in the competition is at a disadvantage and has therefore
been thrown out, creating an ever-widening gap between the rich and
the poor. The desperate poor have looked for ways of surviving in the
competition and have resorted to looking for shortcuts. Secret cults
demanding human blood and witch doctors looking for human body parts
have in the past been the best shortcut for the poor people because
they promise to provide a good amount of money for a single transaction.
Graduating a third-world republic to a middle-income country will stiffen
this competition, and the irrational will most likely resort to the
witch doctors rather than seek different means of winning it.

Of
course, the past incidents in Kenya have brought out exactly how the
low-class people are trying to make wealth using such shortcuts. First,
the public was shocked on September 13, 2010, when two mortuary attendants
who had attempted to sell body parts were arrested by the police. The
two were found with a green polythene paper bag containing male genitals,
which they attempted to sell for 50,000 Kenya shillings (700 U.S. dollars).
It is a fact that with the possibility of getting such money for a single
transaction, the poor man living in the slums or other underdeveloped
estates will continue risking engaging in the body-part market even
if it means killing the neighbor next door.

The
public was again driven into a panic on September 15, 2010, when family
of a corpse that was to be buried found that the body was missing its
genitals. This news caused dozens of citizens to rush to various mortuaries
to find out whether their dead relatives had their genitals or whether
they had been chopped off for the dirty business that has been on the
rise lately. The above incidents left most Kenyans who had buried their
relatives earlier doubting whether they had buried their loved one with
their genitals intact.

Most
investigations revealed that the genitals were being sold to witch doctors
for a generous sum and then used to make love portions and charms to
sell to the many Africans who have problems with their love lives and
marriages. The parts were also used to make charms for business people
to beat their business rivals.

These
cases bring to mind the killings of taxi drivers that hit the country
in August 2009. In that month alone about thirteen taxi drivers were
killed and then found without their tongues, limbs, and genitals. These
taxi drivers were approached by people who pretended to be customers
late in the night, and at dawn their bodies were found mutilated and
dumped by the roadside.

To
continue, on August 17, 2010, the headlines of most East African media
and daily publications were full of the story of a Kenyan man who was
caught trying to sell an albino man in Tanzania. The man was arrested
when the police pretended to be the potential buyer of the albino. The
police had to pay the sum of 250, 000 U.S. dollars for the albino. The
Kenyan man had told the albino man that he had secured him a job. Not
knowing that he was a commodity that was to be sold for a great sum,
the albino agreed. This is just one of many stories about the albino
trade in East Africa. It started with fishermen who believed that albino
hairs could bring them a large harvest of fish. They placed the hairs
on the net and believed they worked. Then slowly the witch doctors took
advantage of this belief and made business men believe that planting
albino parts in their business would make their business successful.
As a result, albino body parts were in demand that led to the deaths
of over fifty albinos.

It
is a fact that superstitious beliefs have still remained a disease in
most parts of Africa even up to this century of enlightenment. The ideas
that were invented by the primitive minds of the old societies have
become a meme that has proved tough to delete from the minds of most
Africans. These memes have even flourished among those with formal educations.
This is because you will find most educated scholars in Africa still
believing in the power of Juju, witchcraft, and other supernatural entities.

Adding
to this debate, most ignorant African conservatives have always maintained
that African beliefs like the belief in witchcraft, witches, witch doctors,
the power of the ancestors, and other cultish beliefs should not be
interfered with because they bring about African authenticity. These
misled individuals have maintained that deleting superstitious beliefs
from the African mindset will be detrimental to African literature because
African man is associated with his unique beliefs, like the belief in
witchcraft.

When
you listen to these people argue, it’s hard to tell whether they are
aware of the danger of encouraging the public belief in witchcraft and
other irrational beliefs. Do these people know that there are children
who are poisoned, hacked to death, or forced to roam the streets in
some parts of Nigeria? Have they watched the documentary Saving
Africa’s Witch Children? Are these people aware that in Kisii
and Malindi, Kenya, old women and men are at risk of being lynched simply
because people believe that they have wicked powers that they use to
cause harm? Do these people see the cases in Malawi where women are
stoned to death because the societies have chosen to believe in witchcraft
powers?

Even
if Vision 2030 is successful in Kenya, these irrational beliefs will
still persist if they are not addressed. With the emergence of small
urban centers, competition will be high; many Africans will still find
themselves at a disadvantage. Many will look for ways of making it big
and seek the advice of witch doctors, who have maintained that they
can use certain human parts to make people succeed in their business
endeavors. These poor individuals will do anything they are told by
the witch doctors, and the killings for humans for body parts will be
on the rise.

With
the rise of urbanization that the success of Vision 2030 will bring,
most sub-Saharan African societies will still experience many more killings
if we don’t teach them about the dangers of superstitious thinking.
The challenges of urbanization in most developing countries of Africa
have always included a rise of crime. This is because so many people
migrate from the rural areas to look for employment. With high unemployment
rates, most end up in the slums, and out of desperation they allow their
minds to be swayed by gangs, cults, and other bodies that promise good
money for their illegal endeavors. Young people are especially at risk
for this kind of misuse.

This
gives humanists and rational people a big task ahead. Can skeptics and
rational people in Africa also adopt a Vision 2030 plan that society
will be free from irrational beliefs? Can they foresee a 2030 where
children in Nigeria will not have a bleak death due to witchcraft accusation
to look forward? Can they adopt a vision where no women will be stoned
in Malawi or old men and women will be lynched because of a belief in
witchcraft? Can we have an end to killing of people for their body parts
and teach societies how to effectively use their creativities for survival
instead of appealing to irrationality?

Anti-Superstitious Thinking Campaign was held at CFI/Kenya on September 25, 2010.

This is an achievable vision,
and the Center for Inquiry/Kenya has engaged with institutions of higher
learning, secondary and primary schools, youth organizations, and the
rural communities in their fight against superstitious beliefs since
the launch of their Anti-Superstitious Thinking Campaign in May 2009.

Moses Alusala of the Kenya Humanist Association presents a paper on superstition at CFI/ Kenya.

In most of our engagement with
youths, we have realized that they are flexible and have not yet been
deeply indoctrinated by the superstitious beliefs of the older members
of society. With good literature materials and education, they are the
best people to engage in the Anti-Superstitious Thinking Campaign, for
they will be the active people in the year 2030.

The
Center for Inquiry/Kenya has scheduled a lot of ongoing campaigning
at institutions of higher learning beginning November 5, 2010, at the
University of Nairobi, then continuing on to Moi University in Eldoret.
Then it will focus on local organizations in the spotlight areas in
November and December.

Some participants of the Anti-Superstitious Thinking Campaign held at CFI/Kenya.

We started the campaign and
will continue the fight against irrational beliefs. We believe that
by engaging the campus groups, local groups, and secondary and primary
school groups, we shall achieve our Vision 2030 of a society that will
be free from irrational belief. It is encouraging that in Malawi, George
Thindwa, a humanist who is involved with the Center for Inquiry, has
taken on the fight deep has been featured in many international news
stories. Mr. Thindwa is advocating for the release of about fifty women
who have been arrested for witchcraft in the past. More of their story
can be read at http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/malawi-group-wants-witches-released-20101009-16cgg.html.

More
and more humanists in Africa are joining the fight, and if we continue
with that vigor, then more and more people will continue to be liberated
from the slavery of dogma and superstitious beliefs that have degraded
development in Africa and have been the major cause of human rights
crises.

Together we shall achieve the
vision!

Dr. Adeleke Oluseyi Ogulana, a humanist from Nigeria, visited the Center for Inquiry/Kenya to have a look at how humanism is organized at the Center. He discussed how irrationality is becoming a threat to the survival of the younger generation in Nigeria. Pictured from left: George Ongere, Dr. Adeleke, Boaz Adhengo of Humanist and Ethical Union of Kenya, and Moses Alusala of the Kenya Humanist Association.

HBO’s recently released documentary Saving
Africa’s Witch Children
gives the actual picture of how superstitious belief is threatening
the survival of the younger generation in developing nations of Africa.
The documentary vividly exposes how evangelical religious vehemence,
combined with belief in sorcery and black magic, has branded many children
as witches in Nigeria. These children, denounced as Satan by religious
bigots, are believed to be the causes of their families’ problems
by their ignorant parents. Due to this, many children have been murdered,
starved, tortured, and abandoned by their parents to homelessly roam
the streets.

It
came as a surprise when Kenya’s leading newspaper, the Daily
Nation, published
a story on a survey
conducted by The Pew Research Center (a U.S.-based organization) ranking
Kenya as the leading country in Sub-Saharan Africa in the worship of
alternative gods, belief in witchcraft and evil spirits, sacrifices
to ancestors, and belief in traditional religious healers and reincarnation.
In this survey, Kenya was ranked fifteenth in Africa for belief in witchcraft.
This puts Kenya a few points behind the Democratic Republic of Congo
and way ahead of Ethiopia, Nigeria, Zambia, and Rwanda. A quarter of
Kenyans, both Christians and Muslims, confessed to believing in the
protective power of juju (charms or amulets) and consulting traditional
healers.

Right
now, the media’s attention has been drawn to confessed serial killer
Philip Onyancha, who shocked security officers when he led them to places
he had hidden bodies of people he had kill in the past. Onyancha confessed
to having killed at least nineteen people, most of whom were women and
children that he claims are vulnerable. When asked the purpose of his
killings, he answered, “For blood.” He further said that he strangled
and bit the neck of his victims to suck their blood. Onyancha claimed
that an evil spirit instructed him to kill his victims and directed
him where to commit the murders as a sacrifice. Onyancha then narrated
how he was introduced to commit the murders by a teacher’s cult back
in high school. The cult promised Onyancha that he would become rich
after killing 100 people. More of his confession can be watched on YouTube. Of course this is how far the belief
of gods, witches, and Satan has come in most parts of twenty-first century
Africa.

Onyancha’s
case shows that if nothing is done to quickly enlighten the continent
about the dangers of believing in witchcraft, gods, and Satan, then
a lot more people are going to lose their lives to religious bigotry.
Religious beliefs can be used by cults focused on misusing the minds
of the poor people in developing nations of Africa. Many poor people
frustrated in poverty become fodder for these cults; they’re promised
wealth in exchange for agreeing to kill for the cult. As a result, there
is bound to be hundreds and hundred of serial killers looking for the
quickest way of making wealth, which will eventually lead to a human
rights crisis.

The
time has come for a humanistic enlightenment. It is time for humanists
and freethinkers to come out and defend the need for reason, science,
and freedom of inquiry. It is time for reason to be instilled in the
minds of the masses to remove irrational belief that poses a threat
to human survival. It is high time humanist movements in Africa stood
up strong and helped in the fight against superstitious beliefs and
witchcraft.

In
2010, the Center in Kenya made the anti-witchcraft campaign its number
one agenda. The Center began by engaging Moi Freethinkers—a campus
movement at Moi University in the Anti—in the anti-superstition campaign.
Moi freethinkers held several debates on superstitious topics aimed
at informing the University students of the dangers of superstitious
belief.

The
campaign has also been in progress by the On Campus movement at the
University of Nairobi. We at the Center realized that by engaging this
On Campus movement, we were creating active educators who would go to
their local communities during long holidays and teach members of their
societies about the dangers of superstitious beliefs. Many have succeeded
in distributing materials from CSI that expose fallacies made when pronouncing
witches to the communities.

In
addition, the Center for Inquiry/Kenya was one of the three organizing
groups of the first Kenya
National Humanist meeting
held May 8–9, 2010, during which CFI/Kenya mobilized leaders of the
On Campus Movements of three public universities. At the conference,
CFI/Kenya emphasized the need to embrace the fight against superstition.
Most of the new humanist organizations that attended the meeting expressed
an interest inpursuing this campaign further. CFI/Kenya distributed
the March/April 2010 issue of the Skeptical Inquirer, which had
the great article “Faith in the Power of Witchcraft” by Anthony
Lang on why witchcraft beliefs persist in this twenty-first century.

George Ongere presenting
on the dangers of superstition at the first
Kenya National Humanist conference held May
8–9, 2010.

Beginning
July 12, 2010, and continuing until to December 20, 2010, the Center
in Kenya is going to collaborate with local organizations in rural areas
of Kenya on the campaign. This is going to involve a lot of empowerment
and education. We shall then visit community to community with the help
of these organizations. The communities that the Center will visit will
be mostly in areas where belief of witchcraft is rampant.

Even
though the dangers of superstitious belief have been brought out in
the open in the media, most conservatives in Africa has been thwarting
the efforts of humanists to enlighten different societies about the
dangers of witchcraft belief. One writer, Emeka Esogbue, certainly attempted
to thwart Leo Igwe’s efforts. In his article “Witchcraft or Reality,”
Esogbue writes: “I have picked interest in the points raised by Leo
Igwe to buttress his own convictions that witchcraft is a mere belief
shared by those who want to explain away their misfortunes. This argument
is laughable because we know that Leo Igwe as an African descent posses
a vast knowledge of the African tradition.”

George Ongere
with IHEU East Africa Representative Deo Sesitoleko, Moses Alusala
of the Kenyan Humanist Association, and a
humanist attendant at the conference.

Esogbue continues:

For a long time, I wondered
what people, especially Africans, set to achieve when they deliberately
pretend not to believe in socio-cultural practices that trouble the
African societies, especially when some of them are living witnesses
in their own families or have been victims in the past until I realized
that we all think people would jeer at us if we profess beliefs in such
concepts or that the world would take us as uncivilized in spite of
the level of our educational qualifications. In this case, I have not
in any way attempted to create the notion that Leo Igwe is one.

Such
writers who ask what humanists achieve by engaging in an anti-superstition
campaigns obviously have failed to notice the harm belief in witchcraft
is doing in Africa. Writers like Esogbue feel that we have to honor
belief in witchcraft simply because we are Africans, even when parents
in Nigeria are made to believe that their children are witches and hack
them to death or feed them poison. These writers believe that when old
Men and women in Kenya are lynched because of the belief that they are
possessed by bad spirits of ancestors, we have to defend these actions
to protect our sociocultural practices!
Esogbue’s full article
is available online.

Humanist leaders pose for
a photo after the first Kenya National Humanist
conference in Kenya.

The
time has come to stop tolerating unreason. The time has come when we
need to justify beliefs through factual premises rather than through
supposition and confessions that lack logical justification. It is time
to put an end to the albino killings by ignorant fishermen who think
that the body parts of albinos bring large harvest of fish. This also
applies to businessmen who believe that putting albino parts on their
business premises will accrue big profits.

With
the continued support from the Center for Inquiry/Transnational and
CSI, the Center for Inquiry/Kenya will continue engaging campus groups
and local organizations in the fight against superstition. On the other
hand, humanists in Africa have held the fight dear, and they are willing
to make the dream come true. Humanists will continue to fight until
the day when Africa will pride in the fruits of reason, science, and
freedom of inquiry.

Together
we shall achieve!

]]>Anti-Witchcraft Campaign at CFI/KenyaThu, 31 Dec 2009 08:28:00 EDTinfo@csicop.org ()http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/anti-witchcraft_campaign_at_cfi_kenya
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/anti-witchcraft_campaign_at_cfi_kenyaThe Center for Inquiry/Kenya started 2009 on a high note, organizing the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth on February 12, 2009, in collaboration with the Anthropology department at the University of Nairobi. Many themes were discussed about the progress of science during the celebration. The Center will continue organizing this event every year and will include many learning institutions and organizations, for events like this are the best way the Center can spearhead public understanding of science in the republic.

Support our anti-superstition campaign in Africa by making a tax-deductible donation today.

February 17–19, CFI/Kenya organized a series of lectures and a workshop when Leo Igwe of the Center for Inquiry/Nigeria visited. Here, we engaged students at the University of Nairobi and Kenya Polytechnic with a talk on the dangers of superstitious beliefs. Leo also met with humanist leaders in Kenya and discussed the future of humanism in Africa. Students appreciated Leo’s enthusiasm and asked the Center to continually invite speakers to enlighten them with topics provoking their skepticism. The Center will continue inviting speakers through the help of Norm Allen Jr., transnational director at the Center for Inquiry/Transnational.

Afterward, in April, I embarked on strengthening the on campus movement by traveling to Maseno University and Kenyatta University. I met members of their student groups to discuss ways through which the movement can be strengthened and attract wider membership. There is a lot of potential for the on campus groups because students are known for being positive and flexible to new ideas. Most welcomed the ideals of secular humanism and believe it is the only means of liberating them from the many obstacles faced in a third-world republic like Kenya. We at CFI/Kenya have considered many ways to actively motivate the movement onwards, like starting essay-writing competitions and organizing debating competitions with other learning institutions.

Suddenly unreason and superstition started springing up in full force in some parts of Kenya and in other republics of Africa. The most publicized case, which made headlines in both the local and international news, was the burning of five suspected witches in Kisii, an interior village in the Nyanza province of Kenya. Then in Malindi, a small town in the coastal part of Kenya, old women and men started to be targeted with witchcraft accusations that resulted in their lynching.

In Nigeria, the witch accusations by evangelicals resulted in many children being hacked to death and others being fed with poison. News of these actions elicited a strong reaction with the public. The situation worsened further when news broke that Tanzanian albinos were being killed for their hairs, which fishermen believe can accrue large harvests of fish. Some businessmen also believe that body parts of albinos can make their businesses flourish. Hence albinos’ lives are at risk. We thought this was Tanzania’s situation, but it soon passed borders into Kenya, where many albinos went missing. After some investigation, it was brought to light that Kenyan albinos were being killed and their body parts sold to Ugandan witchdoctors who in turn sold them to businessmen.

In response to these events, the Center for Inquiry/Transnational launched an anti- witchcraft campaign, which aims to educate affected societies in Africa about the dangers of superstition and sound a call to the witch lynching that has rocked many African societies. And as other African branches embarked on this call, the Center for Inquiry/Kenya took the campaign in hand and went to the ground.

CFI/Kenya’s first approach was to visit the places where lynching took place to carry out various interviews of villagers who engaged in the lynching. In Kisii, a group of youths known as Sungu sungu were at the forefront of the lynching activities, and they believed that the witches possessed evil powers to harm the people. Hence they believed they were justified in hacking them to death. We then identified the youth organizations in these areas and made contact to engage them. Starting in February 2010, the Center will organize many anti-witchcraft educational campaigns with these youth organizations.

We also interviewed Mama Jane, whose story made both local and international headlines. Mama Jane was accused of being a witch by Pastor Muthee, and the town was about to lynch her when the police intervened. Mama Jane told us of her experiences when her life was endangered.

After carrying out the interviews, the Center embarked on anti-witchcraft activism that included organizing campaign seminars at institutions of higher learning and engaging local groups in the places where beliefs in witchcraft is most prevalent. With the materials we accumulated from this groundwork, we developed articles that we can use to educate the public. Our findings reveal that most belief in witchcraft is a result of lack of information about various phenomena. For example, in the case in which five old women were burned as witches, a report afterward on BBC revealed that the boy who was suspected having been bewitched was suffering from epilepsy. Those who did not understand this cause assumed that witchcraft was the culprit.

Of course superstitious ideas have been recognized as one of the main causes of human rights violation in most countries of Africa, which is why the United Nations listed it as its number one agenda for that area.

On September 1, taxi operators in Nairobi staged a protest against the murder of thirteen taxi operators. They were the victims of killings by unknown people who are suspected to have been working for various witchdoctors in the month of August. The bodies were found missing parts and organs such as the brain, skull, and tongue. These taxi drivers were approached by people who pretended to need transportation from the capital city, and they never returned. To the public’s surprise and dismay, their mutilated bodies were found dumped on the roadside.

We had our last campaign seminar on November 14 at the University of Nairobi, whose students saw the need to be actively involved in the campaign. They believed that with the right education and reading materials from the Center, they could spearhead the fight against superstition. The Center will continue to take the lead in this fight and will continue engaging other organizations and learning institutions.

As a leading humanist movement in Kenya, the Center has been consulted by many humanist organizations. On November 25, the executive director of the Center for Inquiry/Kenya was the guest of honor in the Launching of Kenya Humanist Movement. The Center and Kenya Humanist Movement have written a petition that has been distributed to humanist leaders for signing in support of initiation of the International Day against Witchcraft Violence.

Right now we see homophobia in Uganda, where the right of gays and lesbians are at risk because fundamentalist conservative leaders in the parliament have introduced a bill that prohibits same sex marriage. We hope it will never cross the borders and reach Kenya. As humanists, we will strive to see that each and every individual is given the right to practice what they think is best for their lives without interference from religion and authority. And as we prepare to vote for our new constitution, humanists have been keen on the rights of individuals; rights should not be interfered with by religious leaders who want to plant their slave morality on the heads of the masses.

The Center for Inquiry/Kenya will continue to work hard with institutions of higher learning. In 2010 and after, the Center will start working with the media as well. This is because our works have attracted the Kenya Times, which has shown particular interest in our anti-witchcraft campaign.

Onward!

]]>Youth and Witchcraft Violence in AfricaTue, 29 Sep 2009 11:59:00 EDTinfo@csicop.org ()http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/youth_and_witchcraft_violence_in_africa
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/youth_and_witchcraft_violence_in_africaAt times our lack of knowledge about various phenomena can be dangerous. Reason is available for us to use on a daily basis, but few use it in the right way. We have the freedom to judge what is right and wrong from a logical angle, but many of us don’t bother to use this freedom to sort through the ideas and phenomena we encounter every day to separate the good ones from the trash. Sadly, in Africa, the masses think that in order to be rational they must go to school and get advanced degrees. Without these degrees, they think they must remain village dustbins to gather all the trashy ideas and dogmas.

Even though deep inside we feel that pestering instinct to look logically at what society gives us to consume, we often fail to respond to that nagging desire to know. In the end all the garbage we ingest becomes so lethal that it threatens regurgitation, but we still assume and believe we are doing well. The result is that the garbage becomes a poison that is regurgitated so violently that we don’t know how to deal with it. Analogously, the African society fed us with ideas about witchcraft, witches, and witchdoctors that we consumed whole. These ideas entered our minds, growing over time and transforming into something so dangerous that it has caused a human rights crisis in many republics of Africa: the recent witch lynching activities that hit both local and international press.

Not long ago, we believed that a group of able-minded people free from the ideologies of the old would be born in Africa. The members of the group would develop their brains well and focus on agendas to help develop Africa. They would eschew mystical and tribal thinking to escape ideas of witchcraft, caste discrimination, and other dogmatic perspectives. They would thrive with the growth of scientific literacy in Africa, which would give them their name: the Millennium Children of Africa. Having grown up immersed in technology, the members of the Millennium Children of Africa could reap all the benefits of a computerized world to think forward and bring industrialization to Africa.

Of course, this group was born. They found when they intermarried with other tribes, tribal and ethnical thinking disappeared. They found when their educational institutions were secularized they could interact with people of all calibers and of all religions. They found when the eras of political assassinations and well-known dictators had gone, they now had the freedom to learn in an environment that somehow best suited them. The coming of the Internet with the computer age transformed the world into a global village in which the free exchange of ideas was possible. Their energy was capable of making Africa a continent of change. The coming new millennium was bright with strategic plans to enable these young people to develop a brighter future for Africa.

But things started taking a slower turn and, as the millennium came, it seemed as though things were stalling. The promises remained elusive, and nothing constructive was being done to empower this group of young minds. The education system began deteriorating, and ideas that could have opened up their minds for positive and creative thinking were gagged. All avenues to critical thinking, reason, and science were blocked and replaced with dogma.

To be precise, I am talking about the current youth in Africa. Young people face many obstacles that block both their individual progress and collective contributions to the country at large. The story is even worse in developing nations where youths face a bleak economic future due to lack of information and experience. Without job opportunities, young adults have been vulnerable to a wide range of hazards, including sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, violence, discrimination, and alcohol and drug abuse. The situation in Kenya specifically and Africa as a whole is a story of youth poverty and unemployment. In the cities, young men and women walk day in and day out in search of employment to fulfill their basic needs. Here, they end up in the slums where they find themselves in awful living conditions where running sewers and out of control human decay is the norm. In the rural areas, desperate youths have tried to engage in subsistence farming to survive only to find other obstacles like decline in prices and competing products sold at lower market rates.

Moreover, young adults in Kenya and most other African countries have been viewed with uncertainty and suspicion. Both the government and international strategists frequently overlook them and their views on economical, political, and social agendas as unwise and unripe. In the end, the young people have been left vastly unattended to, which has rendered them hopeless and disillusioned.

With all these obstacles, many youths have resorted to redirecting their energies to social vices. This is where they meet bad individuals who prey on their gullible, desperate minds. They find individuals who have watched them in their desperate situations and continue to tap and encourage their primitive instincts and plant dogmas in their unsure minds. Suspicion and superstitious ideas seep in, and they become willing slaves to be brainwashed.

This misery might explain why the youthful demographic has been reported at the forefront of the recent activities of witchcraft violence and witch lynching. According to statistics in the Ralushai Commission Report, a conference that was organized in South Africa by the Commission on Gender Based Violence, youths often lead attacks on alleged witches. Their involvement was found to be based on various factors, including unemployment, poverty, and lack of credible leadership. It was found that the purveyors of the modern phenomenon of witchcraft violence—who target the wealthy and successful—were motivated by greed and personal gain. These people incited and mobilized youths by feeding them superstitious ideas about their business competitors. Here the youths took matters into their hands and quickly hacked these people to death.

Credo Mutwa, a victim of witchcraft violence, gave his personal account of being accused of witchcraft and nearly burnt alive. He also recounted how two of his friends, Mrs. Ramatsimela and Mr. Khupe, were killed by a mob of young activists in the land of Kgosi Phase. Ramatsimela and Khupe were dragged to the top of mountain and burnt alive by a group of young people. Rocky Mabunda, who comes from Zangoma, explained how the youths take a lead in killing those accused of witchcraft. He did not blame the youths, however; he said that youths never went to the seers, witchdoctors, and religious leaders and asked them to identify the witch. It was the parents and other ill-motivated people who sought the seers and gave the information to the youths who carried out lynching without inquiry.

Harold Mathebula, a young convict serving a twenty-year sentence narrated the story of a crime he committed in 1990 after the release of Nelson Mandela. Mathebula celebrated Mandela’s release by burning someone accused of witchcraft, which he now accepts was an innocent man. In prison, Mathebula was part of a group that produced videos to educate people about the dangers of witchcraft violence. He says, “We believe if the youths are given proper education about the horrors of witchcraft violence, this could help reduce or stop the carnage….We are aware that what we did was wrong, accept the consequences of our actions, and are prepared to work hard to prevent other senseless acts.”

In Kisii, a group of youths known as Sungu sungu has been a nightmare to many. They are notorious forerunners in burning alleged witches in Kisii. Sungu sungu was formed under the guise of community policing—a program that was launched by the Kenyan government in various local communities to involve citizens in keeping securities when the administrative police had failed working alone. In other communities, this program succeeded. However, in Kisii, the formed group used the opportunity to combat witchcraft, and witch accusation became the norm. This group is widely known to have burnt five women alive—a story that made headlines in both local and international media.

Usually when sickness, death, or other misfortune befalls a person or a family, witchcraft is the assumed culprit. The aggrieved party then consults a traditional healer to determine the source of the tragedy. Should the tragedy be ascribed to witchcraft, the traditional healer points out a witch and the Sungu sungu are fed the information that ultimately leads to a lynching.

The story has always been of youths involved in witchcraft violence. People between the ages of forty and sixty years have in rare cases been involved directly in witch violence, but young people usually commit the actual violence. This means that if the youths are not mobilized and given a proper education involving reason, science, and critical thinking, then a lot more witch hunting and witch lynching will continue in Kenya. Youth empowerment is the only way to curb witch lynching in Africa.

In its Anti-Witchcraft campaign, the Center for Inquiry/Kenya has embarked on engaging the youths in this fight. From September 28 to October 1, 2009, the Center for Inquiry/Kenya will visit Moi University to meet students on campus. Here they will organize a workshop to discuss ways in which youths can avoid becoming victims of unscrupulous individuals who mobilize them to carry out witchcraft and other related violence. We will debate “Do Witches and Witchcraft Powers Exist?” which will hopefully open the minds of students to science, reason, and critical thinking.

From October 26 to 28, 2009, the Center for Inquiry/Kenya will organize a major Anti-Superstition Campaign at the University of Nairobi. Here we will invite all the campus groups from different universities, local youth groups in the areas that have been on the spot on witch lynching, and other NGOs that have been at the forefront of the Anti-Superstition campaign. This campaign, whose theme is “Superstitious Thinking and Its Dangers to the People,” will raise concern on some issues that have been overlooked in the fight against witchcraft-related crimes. Many intellectuals from various learning institutions will be involved.

The Center for Inquiry/Kenya will then select a few individual campus groups and visit the local rural youth groups, like the Sungu sungu, that have been involved in witchcraft violence and have a session. We believe this will be a thoroughly positive direction in the fight against witchcraft violence and belief in witchcraft.

]]>How Can the Concept of Humanism Solve Witchcraft Belief in Africa?Thu, 16 Jul 2009 08:52:00 EDTinfo@csicop.org ()http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/how_can_the_concept_of_humanism_solve_witchcraft_belief_in_africa
http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/how_can_the_concept_of_humanism_solve_witchcraft_belief_in_africaIn the past months there have been shocking reports of witch hunting and burnings of suspected witches in Kenya. The most dreadful incident was the burning deaths of five alleged witches in Kisii. This incident made international headlines and raised confusing questions among many as others dismissed it as common in African culture to believe in witchcraft, a personal choice that should not be interfered with. In this incident, it was believed that those witches had bewitched a young village boy, making him unable to talk. This angered villagers, who without any further investigation attacked the suspected old women and burned them.

However, a report on BBC on June 26 by Odhiambo Joseph in “Horror of Kenya’s Witch Lynching,” makes it clear that the boy who was suspected of being bewitched was suffering from epilepsy. The child’s mother, upon seeing her son in that state, became scared and thought her son was bewitched and accused the old women. The full account of this story can be viewed online at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8119201.stm.

This reveals how Africa’s unreason regarding certain phenomena is continuing to cost the lives of innocent people. It is also shocking that NGOs like the Kenya Human Rights Commission approach this disaster not by eliminating belief in witchcraft but only by voicing caution on the killing of witches. How can you convince someone who believes that witches cause diseases and possess evil powers not to kill those they suspect of having those powers? How can you approach this topic when you have a belief in witchcraft? Even the police who can solve this situation fear witches because they believe witches have supernatural powers.

Most Africans believe religion can solve situations like the witch problem but have nevertheless promoted belief in witchcraft and witch hunts. Pastor Muthee of The Word of Faith Church in Kiambu discovered that by protecting people against witchcraft his church could attract funding from abroad. Pastor Muthee rose to prominence after he declared a woman in the Kiambu town a witch. The London Times reported that “after Pastor Muthee declared Mama Jane a witch, the town’s people became suspicious and began to turn on her, demanding she be stoned….” The full account of this story can be found online at http://youngphillypolitics.com/palin_muthee_witchcraft_and_maimed_children. Here we also find the details of Pastor Muthee healing a London woman of witches, which garnered more funding for his church.

Most of the people in the republics of Africa have become desensitized to the fight against belief in witchcraft. This is because most in the African republic has a strong belief that witches possess power, and it seems they are comfortable with seeing witches burned. However, the cost to the families of those who have lost their lives because society thought their relatives had evil powers cannot be counted. When you sit down with the people who have lost their close relatives due to a belief in witchcraft, you will realize they were not even aware of what society thought of them. If you visit http://whatstheharm.net/witchcraft.html you will find account of people who have died due to belief in witchcraft and you will see how people’s lack of reason has cost the lives of millions of people.

Since mid 2007, children have been kidnapped and murdered in Uganda in what are believed to be bizarre rituals to attain wealth. In Tanzania the killings of albino people are rampant because fishermen believe that the hairs of albinos bring good luck and accrue large harvests of fish. In May 2008 Amnesty International found out that 1000 suspected witches in Gambia had been kidnapped by witch doctors employed by the government in a nationwide witch-hunting campaign. In Nigeria children are chased from their homes, and some are killed because they are believed to possess evil powers.

Until now, there have not been any major organized efforts to critically analyze witchcraft. Belief in witchcraft is based on fear, magical thinking, and inadequate education, and many are regularly being exploited by unscrupulous individuals in positions of influence.

Humanism might be the only concept that can help us find a solution and begin to understand the reasons why belief in witchcraft persists in the minds of the African people. Through its approach of reason, science, and freedom of inquiry, it seems humanism is the only philosophy that can save Africa from this situation. The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is an international, humanist organization that has dedicated its effort to eradicating belief in witchcraft.

In a May press release available online at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/newsroom/witchcraft_and_its_impact_on_development_seminar_to_combat_superstition-bas/,
CFI announced a campaign by its African branches against the ongoing atrocities and in favor of education of the public about the issues. The release sounded a call to arms against the violence and tragedy fostered by a belief in witchcraft. Norm Allen Jr., director of international programs, said “superstitious ideas, many of them rooted in religion, continue to thwart social and economic progress throughout the African continent….What African humanists are doing is uncompromisingly challenging these harmful ideas and offering a humane and rational alternative, drawing upon humanistic ethics and an appreciation for scientific methods of investigation.”

Of course the Center for Inquiry has in-depth experience in the field of paranormal investigations through its sister organization the Committee Skeptical Inquiry (CSI; formerly the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal). CSI (www.csicop.org) over the years has investigated many paranormal phenomena and offered a scientific explanation to the misunderstanding of the suspecting public. The organization publishes the Skeptical Inquirer magazine, which publicizes detailed explanations for the misunderstandings about different phenomena that the public have always claimed to be paranormal. The organization is credited with reducing belief of ghosts, witchcraft, and many other supernatural claims.

This is the kind of rational approach that is needed to deal with belief in witchcraft in Africa. Because they don’t understand certain phenomena that lead them to accuse others of witchcraft, societies in various corners of Africa need to be empowered through education and taught methods of inquiry. With this kind of approach, Africans will realize their misunderstandings and stop believing in witchcraft. And when people cease believing in witchcraft, we will no longer have cases of witches being burned.